Buscando Chagall

🍷 [el cinco de noviembre, dos mil diez] I’ve been to the Art Institute probably a dozen times since they started offering Free Thursday evenings back in 2006. My high school boyfriend took me there one Sunday to see a special Henri Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, and after that I was hooked. But too cheap to get a membership. Free Thursdays became my go-to inexpensive adventure. I’ve explored every gallery, room, and hall in this Chicago museum. So how is it that I have yet to see one of its most famous pieces? 🍷

🍷 America Windows, a triptych of glass panels stained bright blue, was created by artist Marc Chagall for the institute in 1976 as part of the bicentennial celebration. For art buffs, it was love at first sight. But plenty of folks who can’t tell a Monet from a Matisse have come to love Chagall’s windows as well, thanks to their brief appearance in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. One of the more memorable sequences in this iconic Chicago flick follows Ferris, his girlfriend Sloane and best buddy Cameron to the Art Institute, where they encounter many of the masterpieces housed in the museum’s permanent collection. Windows serves as the backdrop for a tender moment between Ferris and Sloane; they steal a kiss in the sapphire glow of its beloved blue glass. 🍷

🍷 Ferris came out a decade after Windows debuted and, according to the institute’s director of public affairs Chai Lee, the film dramatically increased awareness of the museum. 🍷

🍷 “We are still getting requests from visitors for very specific works of art that appeared in the movie,” says Lee. Many of the pieces featured in Ferris are my favorites to visit. Every Free Thursday, it’s a given: I’m going to spend a few minutes trancing out like Cameron on the innumerable tiny dots of George Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. And standing in front of George O’Keeffe’s huge Cloudscape. The institute’s online directory says that America Windows lives right around the corner from these two in the European Painting and Sculpture Collection. How could I have missed it? 🍷

🍷 As it turns out, I wasn’t to blame. The work has been down off the wall since 2005. Originally, it was removed as a precaution during renovations of the neighboring Modern Wing. Construction vibrations threatened to shatter the stained glass, so Windows went into storage. Once preservation technicians had a chance to closely examine the work, they decided to undertake a thorough cleaning. For five years? I wonder. Apparently restoring a masterpiece in glass takes a bit more than paper towels and Windex. 🍷

🍷 Lots of people visit America Windows every time they go to the Institute, just like I do the Seurat and the O’Keeffe. Museum staff discovered the piece’s popularity from the reactions they got throughout its absence. 🍷

🍷 “Literally hundreds of letters and emails poured in over the past few years, asking for the windows’ return,” Lee says. “The Chagall windows were definitely missed.” 🍷

🍷 On Monday, November 1st 2010, America Windows returned to the Art Institute as part of the museum’s “Home for the Holidays” festivities. Now’s my chance to finally see what Ferris and Sloane were kissing about. At the first Free Thursday opportunity, my friend James and I skip our afternoon classes to catch the 5:25 train to Chicago. I feel we might as well do this thing right. WWFD? (What would Ferris do?) He’d ditch school, absolutely. 🍷

🍷 Soon we’re tramping up the steps of the Institute between the huge green lions out front. Inside, we find murmuring throngs of people choking past a female guard. She kindly informs us, “You’ll have to leave your bag over there,” pointing to a marble counter behind us. James pays a dollar for the safekeeping of his backpack. I cram my hoodie in the zippered top before he releases it to the arty-looking youths working the coat check. We smile at the pleasant guard lady on our way into the museum. 🍷

🍷 Within the first half-hour, James and I have completely lost each other. I realize I left my phone in the pocket of the hoodie. Those hipsters at the check-in are probably having a dance party to the text jingles and ringtones of James’ attempts to find me. Keeping a distracted eye out for him, I move from room to room. 🍷

🍷 Old friends greet me from every angle. La Grande Jatte and Cloudscape, of course, and Bordighera: a gorgeous Monet that never fails to remind me of my trip to Italy. There’s a section of prints and drawings that must have been added since my last Free Thursday because it’s all new to me. I’m struck by the economy of these graphite lines, especially compared to the thick layers of oil in the Impressionistic paintings. 🍷

🍷 It isn’t long before James and I stumble into each other. Wandering has a way of making this happen, and that’s what you do in the Art Institute — you look and wander. There’s so much to see and it’s all so engrossing; I almost forgot about Chagall! And now time is running out. It’s half-past seven, and Free Thursdays only go from 5 to 8. We start looking with purpose for America Windows… 🍷

🍷 …but keep getting sucked into other goings-on. A security guy steps forward to reveal a human form hidden in a drawing. All I could see in the sketch was a bunch of knobs and machinery, but the guard quickly proves me wrong. 🍷

🍷 We mosy into the Modern Wing. America Windows is somewhere nearby. We’re peeking down different hallways, deciding where to go, when suddenly a group of students carrying life-size human cutouts comes marching through the gallery. What would Ferris do? We step in line behind them and weave down a series of corridors until we reach a doorway leading to a restricted area. A stern woman stops us. “Nobody without a cutout gets through here.” James and I sheepishly retreat. Then a voice on the intercom announces, “Attention patrons of the museum: Free Thursday will end in ten minutes. Please make your way to the exit.” 🍷

🍷 I can’t believe I’m not going to see America Windows. Feeling defeated, we retrieve James’ backpack from the coat check. I get my phone out of my hoodie. One missed call and two missed texts of “where r u?” Maybe there was a dance party. 🍷

🍷 Passing the green lions again, we step out into the glitter of a downtown Chicago night. My disappointment starts drifting away on waves of free jazz spouting from a street musician’s sax. It’s always an experience, and there’s always next Free Thursday. 🍷